Gold fell early on Monday after hitting its highest in over a year in the previous session, as the dollar recovered from last week's lows and as lack of geopolitical developments dented safe-haven appeal.
Spot gold was down 0.8 per cent at $1,335.10 an ounce by 0705 GMT. It rose to $1,357.54 on September 8, the highest since August 16, 2016. US gold futures for December delivery were also down 0.9 per cent at $1,339.40 an ounce.
“The major determinant of gold last week was actually geopolitical tensions, but over the weekend, we did not see any crisis triggering event so we're going to have less chances for gold prices in the upward direction,” said Mark To, head of research at Hong Kong's Wing Fung Financial Group.
The US dollar won a reprieve from risk aversion on Monday and pulled away from last week's 2-1/2 year low after North Korea held a party over the weekend rather than launch another missile.
“I would go long on the dollar for one week or so, but not for too long because the major determinants, the geopolitical tensions, are still with us and the slowing of interest rate hikes and other tightening measures are going to be with us as well,” To said.
North Korea warned on Monday the United States would pay a "due price” for spearheading a UN Security Council resolution against its latest nuclear test.
Fed policy meet
Federal Reserve policymakers are expected to discuss balance sheet shrinkage at their next meet from September 19 to 20 in Washington and are widely expected keep interest rates unchanged.
It is too soon to predict when the Fed should next raise rates as it continues to tighten policy, given “cross currents" in the economy and markets, New York Fed President William Dudley had said on Friday.
Higher interest rates tend to boost the dollar and push bond yields up, putting pressure on gold prices by increasing the opportunity cost of holding non-yielding bullion.
Spot gold may break a support at $1,332 per ounce and fall more to the next support at $1,317, said Reuters technical analyst Wang Tao.
Speculators raised their net long position in COMEX gold for the eighth straight week to the highest in nearly a year in the week to September 5.
Holdings of SPDR Gold Trust, the world's largest gold-backed exchange-traded fund, fell 0.3 per cent to 834.50 tonnes on Friday.
In other precious metals, silver slipped 0.5 per cent to $17.83 an ounce after touching its highest since April in the previous session. Platinum lost 0.4 per cent to $1000.70 an ounce, while palladium was 1 per cent higher at $944 an ounce.